Rob West 21007328

Major Project Evaluation - Semester One

This semester I have attempted to create a short experimental film that explores the themes of faith and doubt through the portrayal of a man who is trapped between the endless cycle of life and death. I aim to discuss the creative process of this project, detailing the what I feel worked and didn't work in order to gain a better understanding for my major project next semester. Underlying the basic concept of my film, ' ternal !ecurrence', is the philosophical and religious idea of "amsara also known as the cycle of reincarnation. This is mainly considered a #indu idea but reaches into many other cultures and religions such as $uddhism, "ikhism and the %reek philosophical term, &etempsychosis, meaning soul transference or transmigration of the soul. This is a term I discovered through reading the book, ''iet(sche )nd The *ivine'. +ne of my early ideas for the film was to focus on a man who has entered a purgatory realm and seeks to escape the cycle of rebirth, although his spirit has fragmented, splitting off in the form of two other characters, one which represents his loss of faith, an one which resembles his growing sense of doubt. I decided to show parts of my protagonist's past through flashbacks which would provide the form that his faith and doubt take in the movie. The loss of faith is shown in a scene where an old girlfriend leaves him, much like his sense of faith, however, she returns to him a key, which I wanted to use to highlight his choice, could he free himself by taking the correct path or will he be locked or trapped in this place for eternity. The other character, whom I referred to as ' The "tranger' throughout pre,production, is my protagonist's doubt manifesting itself. I chose to use a mask and a cloak to shroud him in darkness and show that he is a form which has spawned in the darker recesses of the man's mind. #e provides my protagonist with a dagger, it is a thin and ornate object which is commonly used in rituals and sacrifices. I aimed to present the -uestion of whether enlightenment can be achieved through sacrifice but also highlight that through his growing sense of doubt, the sacrifice becomes the man himself. The brief I was given for this project asked me to 'explore how humanity creates and relates to it's gods', however, I decided to move away from portraying %od as an entity or present force in my film, as I do not think that is how we as human beings are able to relate to %od. I instead aimed to make use of recurring symbols ad imagery to highlight my protagonist's loss of faith and growing sense of doubt, which ultimately consumes him. This sets the cycle off again as an ever flowing force of nature. It was important for me to shoot the purgatory scenes in a forest as I wanted to link this realm with the shamanistic idea of 'The .ower /orld' which is a plane of existence below our reality 0the middle earth1, which takes the form of the earth as if humans had never altered it. This is generally believed to be the realm of spirits, particularly spirit animals but also many other forms of ethereal life. There is very little actual lifeforms if any to be found here and it is this sense of isolation which I wanted to portray in my film. I approached the planning process with all these concepts and began to flesh the ideas out into a script. I wanted to use narration in my film as a way of mirroring the chorus's spoken in classic %reek tragedies, something that is particularly present in the story of *ionysus, of whom 'iet(sche talks about -uite often. *ionysus was a %reek god who was banished from +lympus as he had a mortal mother, yet he goes on to create his own religious cult which focuses on life's ecstasies and the pursuit of %od,like perfection. I felt his story reflected the journey of my protagonist to an extent so it was a great influence on this project. I aimed to break the film down into the structure of a %reek Tragedy but attempt to portray it in a contemporary light. /hen I arrived at the pre,production stage of my film I decided to focus on two main points before anything else. These were locations and casting. The success of my movie was inextricably linked to these two aspects as I knew I needed a believable, dreamlike yet aesthetically interesting forest location, as well as decent actors who could carry their performances on,screen despite only a small amount of dialogue. &y protagonist needed to seem lost and bewildered but not afraid, I wanted him to be portrayed as resolute as if his rite of passage was a conscious choice rather than a mere coincidence. I spent over two weeks at this stage, visiting locations as often as I could with my camera and also contacting as many people who I thought would be suitable for the roles I needed

portraying. I eventually settled on two distinct forest locations just outside of cclesall as well as a decrepit, overgrown cemetery and a sun,bathed field. I also did some set,design for my living room to turn it into the flashback scene. I included an old canvas print from my ),level photography exhibition which showed a sort of 'window' into the forest which allowed me to link the two points in time as if it were a gateway. In terms of casting, I spent a while only talking to potential actors through emails and phone calls, I wanted them to be on the same page as me so spent time explaining the themes and ideas of my film and judging the person's ability to grasp what I was trying to explore. I ultimately settled on two actors, both of whom are actually close friends of mine. This made the entire process a lot less stressful and we all felt very comfortable working together. I could have done more of an audition process but after having )my and /ill read the lines and give their own perspective on my project, I knew they would be right for the roles. /hen I had decided on my locations and actors, I began work on my storyboard and shot lists, going through -uite a few revisions before I was happy. I intended to shoot thirty six shots in total but that number increased dramatically during the shoot as I went with my gut on location and tried to experiment with a variety of ideas and compositions. The shoot itself took place over the course of a week. I initially created a schedule which had four days of shooting at my locations with my actors. This all went according to plan and I allowed myself three extra days to gather other shots without the need for my actors to be present. The first day of shooting was mostly a test of the graveyard se-uence. I wanted it to be gloomy and so chose to shoot as the light was fading. This didn2t work as well as I had hoped and so I decided to re,shoot those shots at dawn on the final day of my shoot. I began setting up at each location around eight o'clock in the morning so that I was ready for my actors to arrive at nine thirty to begin shooting. This allowed me to plan the shots I wanted to get in advance, which in turn made the entire process much more efficient. I was also able to experiment with different angles and ideas so that I wasn't keeping my actors waiting too long on set. I set aside the hours of nine thirty to four o'clock in the afternoon as my shooting day in order to make the most of the natural light but found that due to my on,set preparation we were able to wrap early almost every day. In the end I decided to shoot almost the entire film with my 34mm lens as I found it gave me a great depth of field which seemed to aid the dream,like atmosphere of the film. I also set up my own sound recording during the living room scene but used )aron as my sound guy for the forest location. This enabled me to focus more on the direction of my actors and I feel I got more out of them during the forest scene. I am pleased with how my shoot went as I didn't make it too complex by sticking with entirely static shots, we also had a lot of fun and spent a good bit of time bouncing ideas between each other which I feel was a great benefit for all of us. I also edited my film by myself, learning how to use )fter ffects as I went. I did the main bulk of the video edit over the course of four days, I spent some time in between reflecting on the work which enabled me to play around with different cuts and se-uences. /hen I felt confident with my film, I attempted to colour,grade my footage to give it more of a tonal presence on the screen. I also spent many days and nights out collecting sound effects for my movie, I wanted everything to flow together and decided to wander far out into the woods in order to capture some interesting sounds. I was lucky and gathered the sounds of an owl's hoot as well as many other sounds which I had not initially planned such as a woman warming up her voice for a choir 0which I edited, copied and slowed to sound like a full choir.1 and a $uddhist group performing a mantra at a meditation centre in cclesall. These are sounds which I would consider using again as I feel they are very strong. I also began work on the music of the film, which at first, was going to be minimal but after I decided I wasn't content with my recordings or the edit of my narrations, I decided to work more on the music. I created three distinct pieces, one for the prologue and epilogue, one $oards of 5anada,like tune for my forest se-uences and also a dark gloomy piece for my "tranger se-uence. This final piece builds with the climax of the film in order to really affect my audience. The sound edit was actually what I found hardest to complete during this project as I built it almost entirely from the ground up. I did the sound edit in "oundtrack 6ro, which allowed me to craft the sound for the movie to my final cut and also create a multi,track project which allowed me

to weave and blend different sounds together to emphasise the idea of a constant flow. I ended up working on this project almost completely by myself, this gave me a lot of freedom to pursue my own ideas but did force me to put a lot of work in and totally self,motivate myself. This was hard at times but I am pleased with the outcome. I did have )aron record some dialogue for me but other than that everything you see and hear was shot by me. I do feel that for my next project I want to work closely with a small group of people, as I do not want be limited by my own creativity and found the input of others to be truly beneficial. )s I want my next project to be larger in scope, I feel I will need other people working closely with me in order to make it the best it can be. That is an issue I have encountered with this project as I feel I was stretched to fulfil all the roles and so perhaps the final product was not as good as it could have been. )s far as this project goes, I am generally happy with it. There are parts of the film I am really pleased with, for example, my footage, sound effects and edit. I definitely think my project could have bee improved in the areas of sound design and art direction and so those are two aspects I will focus more on next time. In terms of using this project as a learning exercise, I feel I want to make use of some tracking and moving shots in the next piece, although the static nature of this film worked with my idea of the forest evoking a sense of inertia, I would love to explore these locations with a moving camera to really bring out their beauty. I am disappointed that my narrations didn't work as I spent -uite a long time planning and writing the short poems, I don't think I will attempt this kind of narration in my next project as I am now leaning more towards an abstract and surreal concept which may make use of odd phrases or words spoken off camera but for the most part I would like to play with more straight dialogue. In terms of sound design for my next film I would like to go deeper, exploring 7oley from not just the forest but many other environments in order to find a balance that reflects the lives that we lead in the twenty,first century. I love Tibetan drums and chimes and would like to explore that kind of music, reminiscent of 6hilip %lass and also the score for $araka. I would also like to make use of a wider range of lenses and fast cuts as I feel I leaned too much on my 34mm lens and the cross,fades in ternal !ecurrence, I'd like to create more of a build,up and climax in my next film, which has a happy ending of sorts so will give the opportunity to experiment more with attention grabbing music and effects. I will also make every effort to work with more of my peers, I know there are a few who are interesting in working with me and I would like to focus on that in order to give the next project the greatest advantage. +verall I feel I could have done a lot more this semester but I have learnt an awful lot. I am pleased with my film but do not think it fully realises my initial intentions which is something I am going to work hard to avoid with my next film. I also want go deeper into the the idea of reincarnation and other spirit realms, playing with a wider source of history, religion an philosophy to make it a more mystical and empathetic journey.